Moondance 4.3- We first brewed this delicious pale ale last year and now it’s back! Hopped with Magnum and Nelson Sauvin this beer has similar wine-like flavours to the grape variety used in wine-making. It was popular last year and sold out quickly. New pump clip design to follow…..

(Our feature is included in Series 9, Episode 4 if you want to search for it later)

Hope you like our brewery! It really looks beautiful in the sunshine 🙂

*Updated post

I’ve uploaded some screenshots of the piece with us in it below. Sorry about the quality but they are just photos of my computer screen but it’s just to give you an idea of our day filming with Channel 4.

It is with great Pride (sorry about the pun) that Melwood Beer Co are participating in the Liverpool Pride festival this weekend (30th July) in our own small way because we have brewed a beer that is being exclusively served by The Dead Crafty Beer Company on St Georges’ plateau.

The Beer

Using an array of American hops this pale ale is easy drinking and is a nice 5% keg beer. Dry hopped with Columbus hops which are earthy, citrussy and spicy!

The Festival

Liverpool Pride is an entirely volunteer-led charity that’s trying to combat homophobia and transphobia across the Liverpool City Region and beyond. Their core values are that they are FREE, INCLUSIVE, VISIBLE and all about LIVERPOOL.

So come on down and support Liverpool Pride and local businesses. All the details about the festival can be found here.

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Hopefully the following info will help you to decide what type or style of beer that you like. There are so many styles of beer and it would be impossible to list them all in this post but here is a selection of popular styles that Melwood like and brew currently. The latter styles we have plans to brew in the future although we don’t think we’ll be brewing Mild any time soon as we find that there is very little demand for this style of beer so this is included just for info!

So here goes….

English Pale Ale (EPA)

The English Pale Ale can be traced back to the city of Burton-upon-Trent, a city with an abundance of rich hard water. This hard water helps with the clarity as well as enhancing the hop bitterness. EPA can go from golden to reddish amber in colour and has a mix of fruity, hoppy, earthy, buttery and malty aromas and flavours. All ingredients must be English.

English Bitter

The Bitter style came from brewers who wanted to differentiate their ales from other mild brews but they used pale malts and more hops. English bitters are gold to copper in colour and are light bodied. They have a moderate Hop bitterness and most have a fruitiness in aroma and flavour. All ingredients must be English.

American Pale Ale (APA)

This style is now popular worldwide and uses American hops, which are becoming very popular. There is usually a good balance of malt and hops and they tend to be fruity with bitterness that can range from lightly floral to pungent.

Amber / Red Ale

Amber or red ales range from amber to deep red hues. This style of beer tends to focus on the malts, but hop character can range from low to high usually resulting in a balanced beer, with toasted malt characters and a light fruitiness.

Blonde Ale

Wheat Beer

An Americanised version of a Hefe Weizen, these beers range from pale to golden in colour. They look like Hefe Weizen (cloudy) unless they have been filtered. Brewed using substantial percentage of wheat malt they are moderate in hop bitterness but gain a fruitiness during fermentation.

Brown Ale

English India Pale Ale (IPA)

First brewed in England and exported to India during the late 1700s. IPA’s were Pale Ales that were more malty, had a higher alcohol content and were well-hopped. The English IPA traditionally had a lower abv and used less, English hops than the American IPAs but they are evolving to include hops from all around the worlwith an increased abv.

English Stout

Stouts are typically dark brown to black in colour. They are brewed using roasted barley which gives dry character to the beer as well as a big roasted flavour that can range from burnt to coffee to chocolate.

English Porter

Porter is said to have been popular with transportation workers of London, hence the name. Porters are typically brewed using a pale malt base with the addition of black malt, crystal, chocolate or smoked brown malt. Hop bitterness is moderate on the whole and colour ranges from brown to black and are complex and interesting beers.

Melwood’s Porter: Old Hall Porter (brewed once with plans to brew again)

Oatmeal Stout

These are generally stouts that have the addition of oats to the mash. The oats add a lot of smoothness to the mouth feel but they also have an extra sweetness that is unlike any other type of stout.

Saison

Saisons were farmhouse ales that were traditionally brewed in the winter and are a complex style; many are very fruity in the aroma and flavour. Lots of spice and with a medium bitterness. They tend to be semi-dry with many only having touch of sweetness.

Witbier

A Belgian Style ale that’s very pale and cloudy in appearance due to it being unfiltered and the high level of wheat, and sometimes oats, that’s used in the mash. Always spiced, generally with coriander, orange peel and other oddball spices or herbs in the back ground. . Often referred to as “white beers” (witbieren) due to the cloudiness / yeast in suspension.

Mild

Similar to an ordinary bitter yet not as hoppy, the English Mild is a delicate malty brew. Hops are generally mild with a balancing bitterness. Fruitiness, sulfur and buttery flavours.

If you would like more info on the Melwood beers listed here please go to our contact page for details on how to order.

It was amazing to see our beer in cans and it was somehow more refreshing, especially on a day as hot as it was!

We had a real insight into how TV programmes are made and filming was a blast. Jimmy helped us brew and we found him to be a great guy with no side about him, really friendly and easy to talk to. The film crew were brill too – thanks to Lizzie, Neil & Nicola – their professionalism is clear but it’s in an easy going style that made us feel comfortable.

Look out for the programme featuring us – it’s due to be aired before the end of the year!!

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It’s been a strange December; the actual big move was delayed somewhat by works on-going at the Kennels and then the necessary Asbestos inspection that totally threw us before we could move the kit in situ. We passed the Asbestos inspection thankfully and the Melwood kit is now residing in its new brewhouse with Stan doing a few adjustments here and there even up to today.

Christmas sales were mental and we realised we hadn’t brewed enough or bottled enough, so we have learned a lesson – (never move to new premises over the Christmas period) – no – Be Prepared! Next year will be different, we promise!

And as we leave our lovely little brewery we move to our new home which is even more lovely, infinitely bigger and has so much potential we are still pinching ourselves…

And a new year and a new start for Melwood. In 2016 we have big plans for development of our brand(s), our new beautiful Kennels home, exciting new company plans and above all, developing better beer, nay, fabulous beer!

We will have a launch, once we are sorted out and tidied up so keep your eyes peeled for more news as it comes.

We hope you’ll come along with us in 2016, on our ‘journey;’ (sorry about the cliché) It’s gonna be a wonderful year for us. Hope yours is too!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Here are some photos of the move. Although it was difficult, we had a laugh moving and did pretty much everything in Melwood Van…

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No actually we are moving into bigger premises on Knowsley Park! The most wonderful building we could have ever hoped to have secured, to be exact – the Kennels – The former home of the gun dogs that worked on the estate in days gone by and more recently housed Knowsley Community College’s rural crafts workshop.

We are so lucky to be staying on Lord Derby’s Country Estate and our new home is huge compared to what we have now and it is idyllic!

We have moving things slowly up to the Kennels and are making ready for the big push when we move our kit and stock and become fully operational, whilst in the midst of some repair work to the building, making it habitable again, as it has lain empty for a number of years.

The move means we can finally do everything we were planning to do with Melwood – with dedicated rooms or all our operations – bottling, kegging, casking, tasting, cooling, laboratory and more storage rooms than we could have ever hoped for! And all in a setting of apple trees, blackberry bushes, bee hives and horses, sheep, cows and wildlife in abundance.

We will be having a relaunch party and tours of the brewery will follow with tasting events, festivals and more! Details to follow as they happen!!

The photos I’ve uploaded to this post were taken back in February when we first saw the Kennels; the next set I will post in a few weeks time when we are installed in there and you’ll be able to see a huge difference!

Hope to post a bit more regularly too as things are happening all the time but we’ve been so busy there’s ben no time to get it all on the website!

That’s all for now but keep on supporting our local breweries and pubs and restaurants, we all couldn’t do it without you wonderful people!